Industries

Cable Assemblies for Marine & Outdoor Equipment

Water finds the one place the design assumed it would not go. On marine and outdoor equipment, the ingress path is almost never the connector face — it is the overmold-to-jacket interface, the insert-to-housing fit, or a jacket that has gone brittle under UV.

What this application demands

These are the constraints that change the design. Everything else is a normal cable.

Salt spray corrosion
Tested to ASTM B117 at 5% NaCl. Hours alone mean nothing without an acceptance criterion — ours is no red rust and contact resistance rise under 10%.
UV exposure
Standard PVC chalks and stiffens outdoors. PUR and UV-stabilised compounds are specified for exposed runs.
Ingress protection
IP67, IP68 and IP69K geometries, achieved through jacket bond and insert fit — both tooling decisions.
Direct burial
Jacket selection and overmold sealing for permanent below-grade installation.
Temperature extremes
Cold-flex behaviour of the jacket and overmold, not just the rated operating range.

Typical builds

  • Waterproof overmolded connector assemblies
  • IP67 and IP68 sensor and power cables
  • Direct-burial cable runs
  • Mast, deck and bulkhead feedthroughs
  • UV-resistant jacketed power cords and extension assemblies

How we test sealing, and what the numbers mean

Test Method Typical limit
IP67 Immersion, 1 m for 30 minutes No ingress
IP68 Immersion, 1.5 m for 1 hour No ingress
Salt spray ASTM B117, 5% NaCl 24 / 48 h; 96 / 168 h; 240 / 480 h options
100% production screening Air-leakage test 30–50 kPa, every unit

Two things we insist on stating. First, salt-spray hours are meaningless without an acceptance criterion — ours is no red rust and contact-resistance rise below 10%. Second, we screen 100% of sealed assemblies by air leakage at 30–50 kPa, and verify by periodic water immersion. Air leakage catches the seal defects before a unit reaches the water.

What we ask before quoting

Answer these with the drawing and the quotation will be meaningful on the first pass.

  1. Installation environment: submersion depth and duration, splash, or burial
  2. Target IP rating and the test method you will use to verify it
  3. Salt-spray hours required, and your acceptance criterion
  4. Jacket constraints: UV exposure, halogen-free, colour
  5. Mating connector part numbers and annual volume

Send the specification and the mating connectors

We will confirm what the cable has to survive, flag anything that will cost you money without adding function, and quote against your drawing.

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